paradise

The past two days, yellow flag days, the water has been like glass. Tuesday morning we spent about 2 and 1/2 hours at the beach. I was going to call it “dragonfly day” because the dragonflies were out: thousands of them. Ezekiel got a boogie board and we went out to the sand bar, which requires swimming about ten yards. We spent the day on the sand bar, walking along the sandbar from one beach access point to another, way out in the surf.

At one point, Niki waved at us wildly from the shore and pointed, and we saw six dolphin swimming only a few yards from where Ezekiel and I were on the sandbar. If I hadn’t had him with me, I could have swam up and touched them!

When we got off the sandbar, we found a place at the other beach access where the sand goes out like a boardwalk to the sandbar and marked it to come back later. We got back to Niki and Eden, who had been playing on the shore all that time, and went back home for our regular routine. Ezekiel and I went to the library and checked out a couple of kids books on mom’s account, and when we got back to the house, Susan, mom’s secretary, was there dropping off the golf cart and letting Niki know that a “cleaning crew” will be coming on Saturday when we leave. Niki repeated that news like it was Christmas all evening, she was so excited.

That evening, we went to the East End of the island and played in the bayside surf for 45 minutes, finding hermit crabs with Ezekiel’s net. Later that night, Micah and I made bacon-wrapped shrimp stuffed with crab cake on the grill – we each probably ate about 20 of them – and it was the best food I’ve had in I can’t remember when. We also grilled regular shrimp for the non-meat eaters. Micah and I also drove the golf cart around town that night before we went to bed.

Wednesday the water was even glassier than it was Tuesday. We didn’t get to the beach until about 11am because we stopped two places to get Eden a floatation device, and the second place had exactly what we needed. This time, the whole family went out to the sandbar – Niki and Eden, too – and it was truly paradise there for an hour while we all played together out on the glassy sea. Uncle Micah showed up and he taught us how to find sand dollars on the sandbar with our toes, which Ezekiel did almost the rest of the time. Micah and I tossed a football out on the sandbar for an hour while Ezekiel floated around looking for sand dollars, and Niki and Eden (who got tired of the water after the first hour) walked and down the beach playing in the surf. Niki actually got back in the water again, though, on her own initiative, so I was proud of her: however, it was absolutely PERFECT so you would be silly not to appreciate it.

We came back to the house (Micah is doing his own thing) to give the kids lunch, and then Ezekiel and I went out on the golf cart. He drove the golf cart (he drove for the first time back from The Pig last night) all over town for about 20 minutes, and I think had the most fun of anything he’s done so far. We’re here for a couple more days, so I hope he’ll have the chance to drive some more and make a good memory of it before we go.